Symposium at UA Looks at Black Women as Public Intellectuals

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s department of gender and race studies will host its second “Recovering Black Women’s Voices and Lives” symposium Thursday, Oct. 7.

The theme for this year’s symposium is “Black Women as Public Intellectuals: Past, Present, and Future.” The symposium runs from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in 205 Gorgas Library on the UA campus. Events are free and open to the public.

The symposium will foster discussion and expose University students and surrounding communities to diverse perspectives on the intellectual and activist traditions of African American women. Barbara Smith, founder of the Combahee River Collective and one of the founders of the field of Black Women’s Studies and Black feminist literary studies, will give the keynote address discussing her 40 years of work in this field.

The symposium will include plenary sessions that feature scholars, writers and university students presenting research on, and discussing, African American women as public intellectuals, the particular challenges that race and gender discrimination create for would-be women intellectuals of color and the advancements in the field of African American public intellectualism.

For details, go to http://www.as.ua.edu/womensstudies/site/symposium.htm or phone the department at 205/348-5782.

The department of gender and race studies is part of The College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.